Russell Dickerson – Happen to Me

Welcome to singer-songwriter Friday, starting with a country airplay #1…

[Video]
[5.67]

Julian Axelrod: Last time we covered Russell Dickerson back in 2018, I had been writing for The Singles Jukebox for a little over a year, so my critical faculties (and brain) were still developing. I still remember how I felt the first time I heard “Blue Tacoma,” the rare car-centric country song that’s so vivid and grand you can almost feel the highway wind on your face. I loved it, but talked myself down to a [6]. Six years later, I have way more faith in my own taste and Russell Dickerson’s still making widescreen country anthems that make you want to lean out of a sunroof. As in “Where Is My Husband!” I find the narrator’s passive approach to romance oddly charming; he doesn’t realize he’s being propositioned until he’s already in too deep. It’s “Shut Up and Dance” meets “Time After Time” as told by your friend’s dumb golden retriever boyfriend. Russell Dickerson, thank you for your service.
[8]

Leah Isobel: “Happen to Me” feels faintly cynical, but I can’t tell if it’s because of the times or because of the Cyndi Lauper bite in the chorus. Still, Dickerson evinces an ebullient sort of cartoon-dog horniness that makes the song work; the rapture with which he renders “girls, mmm” is peak himbo.
[7]

Will Adams: Lose the twang and this is a Walk the Moon (RIP) song: doofy but hooky, synth-kissed pop-rock fronted by someone who could be an understudy for Ryan Gosling as Ken (the first verse even has the line “she said, ‘shut up and come dance with me'”). The Cyndi Lauper reference and clever-for-just-a-second’s-thought wordplay in the chorus only add to the cheesy charm.
[7]

Ian Mathers: This is not a criticism, just genuine curiosity; I am seeing Dickerson and this song referred to as “country” and… what exactly here qualifies this as country? Is it literally just the sound of his voice? Because other than maybe than that this seems pretty solid standard pop/rock stuff to me. Like, it feels post-“Jesse’s Girl” to me (despite the obvious difference in subject matter and emotional tone). It’s just a little too slow-moving to be power pop. Except for the voice I guess. And it’s pretty good for what it is! I just don’t understand what it’s being called.
[7]

Alfred Soto: The shenanigans in the video are mortifying in a self-conscious way: a dude with bad hair mugging through jump cuts. “Happen to Me” is stolid, not cringe. The riff holds it together when scrutiny causes the lyrics to tremble and collapse.
[6]

Al Varela: Russell Dickerson, one of the least talented artists to be coughed up by the Nashville machine, keeps being given hits and it drives me mad. Even if this is arguably among his better songs with a decent pop rock-esque progression, it still feels derivative of better songs about that unforgettable girl. “Don’t know what happened to her, but she’s ’bout to happen to me” is such a clunky hook, and eventually those wailing electric guitars start to sound like the soundtrack to the lamest romcom you watched on an airplane out of boredom this year. And for Christ’s sake get a better hair stylist. 
[4]

Jel Bugle: Sort of Nickelback inspired country rock with big chorus! What is not to like about this? Like a latter day Kenny Loggins.  
[8]

Kayla Beardslee: This is mixed like when a K-pop group tries to record a rock song. There certainly are instrumentals, and a lyrical conceit, and a person singing, and some vague gestures at hooks. Keep yee-haw-ing, contemporary country guy, and we’ll stay out of each other’s way.
[4]

Tim de Reuse: I can’t stand the papery, impactless production that filters the rhythm guitar down into a sheet of metallic pinpricks (and why on earth is there a vocoder way back in the mix?), but I have to admit a great deal of affection for Dickerson’s overblown emoting. He’s not some big alpha male who’s been slighted; he sounds overwhelmed, confused, about to burst into tears. He doesn’t know what’s going on with the girl or, like, in general. He’s just a little birthday boy and he’s scared. 
[5]

Claire Davidson: Everything about “Happen to Me” sounds lazy. The song is built on a morose-sounding guitar riff that’s later overladen with more textured electric strumming, all of which gestures at melodic detail without ever contributing any. That’s before the chorus arrives, complete with the standard backdrop of synths-and-guitar-turned-mush that accompanies every country also-ran’s late career breakthrough. Russell Dickerson himself is clearly not ready for the big leagues, singing through his nose every time he attempts to belt, and projecting not so much charisma as smarmy self-gratification. Even the song’s lyrical gimmick—”don’t know what happened to her, but she ’bout to happen to me”—strains for coherence. No wonder it took a fleeting TikTok dance to bring this track to the spotlight; the song is hardly worth a listen in full.
[4]

Nortey Dowuona: Can someone please ask Jeff Braun to put out Evan Hutchings‘s tracks for this song? He’s too underrated as it is.
[1]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: His voice has the same timbre as Shaboozey and this hits the same bare minimum banger competency threshold that “A Bar Song” did — familiar references, a nonspecific nostalgic song, cannily written enough to feel lived in without any pathos that would prevent it from being a general use party jam. It’s cynical, of course, but I have a respect for this similar to what I feel when a really good bridge gets built; more an appreciation for engineering than for artistry. 
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